SAN MARCOS: School district declares impasse with teachers union

The San Marcos Unified School District has declared an impasse with the teachers union for the second year in a row.

Brad Lichtman, assistant superintendent of human resources and development at San Marcos Unified, said the district decided it was at an impasse Thursday afternoon and is the process of filing a notice with the state Public Employment Relations Board, which will consider appointing a mediator to help with negotiations.

Lichtman would not say how far apart negotiations were between the district and the San Marcos Educators' Association, but did say the district is looking at trimming up to $8 million from its budget for the 2012-13 school year that begins in July.

Union President Michael DeVries said the district is asking for at least six unpaid furlough days for teachers in the next school year.

Lichtman said the impasse was not declared because of a dollar dispute but because the teachers union would not agree to come to the table until July 30. The last negotiation session was June 5, he said.

"We feel a much greater sense of urgency to address these issues in June in order to present a balanced budget by the end of June," Lichtman said. School districts are required to have a balanced budget for the new school year by July 1.

DeVries said the association agreed to meet July 13, but also said the district wanted a too-aggressive negotiations schedule.

"The district proposed we start bargaining daily beginning immediately," he said Monday. "Our response was, that doesn't give us enough time to research the proposal and come up with a counter-proposal."

DeVries said half of the association's six-member bargaining team is on vacation, so it would not make sense to start negotiations without them. He also recalled that the district and union bargaining team met for back-to-back negotiation sessions last year, but they still ended in an impasse.

"So why would we do that again?" he said.

After negotiations with a mediator last year, the teachers union agreed to a 3.26 percent pay reduction and corresponding six unpaid furlough days. Management and classified workers had agreed to a similar reduction in the 2010-11 school year, Lichtman said.

The district is facing a budget shortfall of $3 million if voters in November pass a tax increase proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown. The best-case scenario would come with six furlough days for teachers, DeVries said.

If the tax increase is not passed, the district will have a shortfall of $8 million, Lichtman said. DeVries said he did not know how many furlough days that would require.

Lichtman said he did not know the district's latest projected revenue for the 2012-13 school year.

In March, the school board approved the second interim update of the 2011-12 budget, which had about $136 million in revenue and $145 million in expenses. The district has made up shortfalls through its reserve, which in March was projected to be $12 million at the end of June.

DeVries said the district in recent years has asked for cutbacks based on projections that turned out not to be true.

"We want them to base their decision on fact, and they want to make decisions based on projections that have historically been inaccurate," he said.

Lichtman said the district is basing its projections on the best information it has.

"It's very common for districts to reach agreements with associations on contingency and restoration language tied to actual audited numbers at a later date," he said.